Color of Love, The: Jacey's Story (2000) TV Movie

Television movie about a white grandmother and a black grandfather, not married to each other, who must overcome their differences to raise their suddenly orphaned granddaughter. Georgia Porter's life is changed when her estranged daughter and her daughter's husband die in an automobile accident on the West Coast -- leaving behind their 6-year-old daughter, Jacey. Georgia, a genteel Southern widow, is surprised that her newfound grandchild is black. Georgia brings Jacey home with her and attempts to comfort and acquaint herself with the child. Jacey's grandfather Lou raises her spirits when he appears at Georgia's doorstep with documentation giving him the right to raise Jacey back on the West Coast.

The Color of Love: Jacey's Story  (2000) TV Movie
Cast: Gena Rowlands, Louis Gossett Jr., Stella Parton, Monica Parker, Penny Bae Bridges

Grace & Glorie (1998) TV Movie

Adapted from a play by Tom Ziegler, the made-for-TV Grace and Glorie stars Gena Rowlands and Diane Lane as the title characters. Disenchanted with her empty existence in New York City, stylish but lonely Gloria "Glorie" Greenwood heads to the country, where she becomes a hospice worker in the mansion of Grace Stiles, an old, terminally ill widow. At first, Glorie has trouble "taking" to Grace, just as Grace resents Glorie's very presence. Gradually, the two women realize that they have far more in common than they ever could have imagined. A CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, Grace and Glorie was first telecast on December 13, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Grace & Glorie (1998) TV Movie
Cast: Gena Rowlands, Diane Lane, Neal McDonough, Carrie Preston, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis

Guests of the Emperor (1993) TV Movie

In 1942, the Japanese occupied the island of Singapore. During the take-over, not only military soldiers were taken prisoner, but also innocent civilians, particularly women and children. This is the story of a group of women who band together to face brutal treatment, harsh conditions, and ruthless captors to survive their internment. 

AKA - Silent Cries

Guests of the Emperor (1993) TV Movie

Cast: Annabeth Gish, Chloe Webb, Clyde Kusatsu, Gena Rowlands

Betty Ford Story, The (1987) TV Movie

'THE BETTY FORD STORY,' ON ABC

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR

Published: March 2, 1987

''The Betty Ford Story,'' on ABC tonight at 9, is one of those sui-generis television presentations that command attention more for their subject matter than their artistic merit. As a portrait of alcohol and prescription-drug addiction, the film is carefully subdued and, despite its messy subject, insistently tasteful. But as a glimpse into the private life of a former and very much admired First Lady of the United States, ''The Betty Ford Story'' is genuinely compelling and an unusual profile in courage. Holding it together, powerfully yet sensitively, is the performance of Gena Rowlands in the title role.

Based on Mrs. Ford's 1978 autobiography and on subsequent interviews with the Ford family, Karen Hall's script limits the television scenario to the last chapter of the book. The film opens in 1978 as Mrs. Ford enters the alcoholic rehabilitation center of a naval medical center in California. Shaken and wary, she still insists that she does not have a drinking problem. The scene returns to 1974, a time when Betty Ford was urging Vice President Gerald Ford (Josef Sommer) to retire from politics, only to be frustrated by the unfolding Watergate scandal. After Richard Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford would be President and his family would be pushed further into the public glare. During the next four years, Mrs. Ford, already taking ''so many pills for so many aches,'' would sink gradually into serious addiction.

Along with Robert Papazian, David L. Wolper (''Roots'') is an executive producer. His son, Mark Wolper, is the producer. And the distinguished television veteran David Greene (''Friendly Fire,'' ''Fatal Vision'') is the director.

Care has clearly been taken. The underlying candor is modulated with an understandable respect for the woman concerned. Passing references are made to her earlier years, especially to her dancing ambitions. She obviously is a wife who has trouble adapting to the fact that, because of his career, her husband is required to devote enormous time away from home. When Mr. Ford decides to run for the Presidency in 1976, his wife complains: ''What am I going to do? Ask you not to run? You wouldn't bow out and you know it.''

In addition to suffering from arthritis, Mrs. Ford discovers she has breast cancer and has to undergo a mastectomy. Later, she will have to cope with two assassination attempts on her husband. Worn out by the demands of campaigning in yet another election, she finally begins retreating more into her own silent, alcohol-supported world. Her family is stunned to find merely human the woman they had always taken for granted as the gracious and unshakeable center of their world. Accepting that something has gone terribly wrong, they gather as a group and, with professional help in what is called an intervention process, bluntly insist that she seek help.

There are no ''Lost Weekend'' horrors in this depiction of an alcoholic. Mrs. Ford becomes noticeably haggard-looking and grows testy about criticism. We see her momentarily being clumsy or nodding off discreetly at public functions. But the more embarrassing incidents take place off camera. Her children talk of finding her passed out, or of her chipping a tooth in a fall. There is no doubt, however, about the seriousness of her problem, and when Mr. Ford does face the fact, the scene is tremendously moving as Ms. Rowlands, back to the camera, simply breaks into piercingly painful sobbing.

At the end of the film, Betty Ford appears herself, delivering a ''message of hope'' to those who may have similar problems and advising them to call Alcoholics Anonymous or the National Council on Alcoholism. Mrs. Ford, Gerald Ford and their family deserve unstinting respect for their courage, decency and exemplary concern for others.

The Betty Ford Story (1987) TV Movie
Cast: Gena Rowlands, Josef Sommer, Nan Woods, Concetta Tomei, Jack Radar, Joan McMurtrey, Kenneth Tigar, Laura Leigh Hughes, Daniel McDonald, Brian McNamara, Bradley Whitford, Michael Greene, Stanley Grover